Information and inspiration for the woman who trains to fight

Cross-Training for Fighters

Whether you train to fight or for fitness you should consider adding some kind of alternative training to complement your usual workout.

While hardly anything compares to boxing and kickboxing for achieving superior conditioning, there is always room to grow. Athletes know better than anyone the value of cross training to help improve their performance. Any occasional break in training routine can add new challenges for muscles, push the nervous system, sharpen reaction time and improve overall athleticism.

Fight training is all about repetition to develop skills and muscle memory. But adding in other sport disciplines will surely enhance your training.

While YOGA won't do much to make you a fighting machine, it can help increase strength in muscles that may typically get ignored and of course yoga is all about flexibility. Develop better core balance and enjoy other benefits such as pain and stress relief, quicker recovery and improved cardiovascular and immune system.

PILATES is a popular method for further developing specific skills and conditioning that can only be beneficial to your boxing training. Pilates can be highly effective at advancing your mental focus, muscle control and core strength. Additional benefits include adding fluidity and precision to movement as well as increasing breathing efficiency and overall flexibility.

Think boxing is all upper body - forget it! You need a strong core and legs to stay in the fight and to produce more power in your punches. Give your hands a rest and play some SOCCER. If you want to log some miles running, yet don't want to run boring laps or tear up your knees on pavement, Soccer is an excellent option. You'll develop great foot coordination, quickness and reaction time.

SWIMMING is all about endurance. Best of all, you can develop aerobic and anaerobic (very simply, respiration with (aerobic) or without oxygen) endurance. Swimming is also a low impact, total body workout that is especially good exercise for your shoulders and core. Remember Rocky took up swimming leading up to his rematch with Clubber Lang? And remember the outcome of that fight?

Fight training is all about repetition to develop sharp skills and muscle memory. But adding in other sport disciplines won’t harm your efforts and it will surely enhance your training. Go for it, sister!